Neo-Tribalism
Neo-Tribalism is a form of democratic government devised primarily by Dr. Vlasi Malenkov and Dr. Ovdey Shlomov, two Uralican intellectuals, and is the form of government in Uralica. Theory It is different from a traditional democracy in several ways. First of all, the head of state (Chief or Heimopäällikkö) is elected for life, and by the members of a tribal council as opposed to the populace at large. The tribal council, however, is elected by the general populace. In Practice The Chief The Chief is elected for life, meaning that death, resignation, or in the case of corruption, expulsion, are the only methods of the Chief being removed. In the Christian nation of Uralica, the last of these would be a true political death blow. The role of the Chief (currently Jarkko Salomäki) is that of head of state and head of government. The Chief will cast the deciding vote in the case of a numbers deadlock in a Decree proposed to government, which requires a simple majority. A negative vote from the Chief can veto any proposed Law that has under 75% of the council's vote, however this has yet to happen. The Chief has authority to act decisively in certain situations that threaten Uralica. For example, if Uralica has a declaration of war made against it, the Chief may bypass the Council and mobilise troops. To date, this has only been done once, in the war against Sexy Soviets, although the retaliatory attack against the same did go through the Council. The Tribal Council Uralican Neo-Tribalism (which to date is its only use) has a Tribal Council of 238 members, not counting the Chief. This stems from the fact that there are seventeen tribes in Uralica (Finnish, Estonian, Karelian, Livonian, Western Saami, Eastern Saami, Mari, Mordvin, Udmurt, Komi, Samoyedic, Nenets, Ob Ugric, Hungarian, Russian, Mennonite, and Chuvash) and each tribe votes for fourteen representatives. Although there are no traditional ministries, the Chief takes advice from any Council member "gifted" in a certain area. For example, Vaido Kuik is knowledgeable in both public services and the organisation of cultural activities. As many Council members are staff at Uralikan Yliopisto, the Chief has a large base to draw on for educational advice. Ulrike Didriksen and Markus Stefanssohn, both Mennonites, are key advisors in the health-care department. And Lt.-Gen. Kirill Zholtok, Air Marshal Kaido Ojastu, and Kari Fisk are defence-oriented. Laws for the nation can be proposed by any member of the Tribal Council, but they must pass with a 60% or more super-majority, which prevents the instance of deadlocks. "Decrees," such as declarations of war, declarations of peace, treaties, entry into or withdrawal from an an alliance, placement or removal of embargoes against a nation, or any other such things, have to be approved with a simple majority, with the only possibility of a tie being if there is an odd number of abstentions. If a Tribal Board (see below) cannot solve an issue brought forward by an official petitioner, the petitioner is referred to the Chief and Council. The Tribes Before Uralica's foundation, the intelligentsia of the Uralic ethnicities spent much time deciding what these Uralic "Tribes" would be. The final setup looked something like this: *Finns (including North American, Tornedalen, and Kven) *Estonians (including Võru-speakers) *Karelians *Russians *"Livonians" (speakers of Livvi, Ludian, and Veps) *Ob Ugrics (Khanty-Mansi) *Komi (including Permyak) *Mordvins (Moksha-Erzya) *Udmurts *Mari (East and West) *Eastern Saami (Kildin, Inari, Skolt) *Western Saami (North, Lule, South) *Nenets *Samoyedics (Nganasan and Selkup) *Mennonites *Hungarians *Chuvash (since annexation of Agryz District, this also includes Tatars) The Tribal Boards One tier lower than the Tribal Council are the 17 Tribal Boards (Fin. Heimonjohtokuntat, Rus. Племенное Руководства). Although the head office is located in a fixed city, there are smaller Board Offices in every settlement above the population of ten thousand people. It is at this level that there is the most interaction between politicians and non-politicians. Petitioners are allowed, and in fact, encouraged, to bring any significant issue of culture, infrastructure, finance, education, environment, or resources (among other important issues) before the Board. As of 15 June 2008, the shortest petitioner session of any board was ten minutes, by a Mr. Yoni Tsyplakov of the Komi tribe, simply requesting funds to rebuild a power main that was severed during Ionizer's attack on Pazhga, which took place 29 March 2008. The longest was four hours by a group of Mordvins that had heard about CCC's attempts to make peace with Beilliran being stymied by a lack of co-operation. The results of this were brought to KingJarkko by Mordvin Council Member Marat Pavlov, and this led to the near-immediate deployment of the Udmurt 1st Battalion into the same nation on reconnaissance. The "Tribal Seats" are as follows: *Finnish Tribe - Kirov *Estonian Tribe - Vaahruše *Karelian Tribe - Petroskoi *Russian Tribe - Yekaterinburg *Livonian Tribe - Viipuri *Ob Ugric Tribe - Yugrakar *Komi Tribe - Ukhta *Mordvin Tribe - Saransk *Udmurt Tribe - Izhevsk *Mari Tribe - Yoshkar-Ola *East Saami Tribe - Murmansk *West Saami Tribe - Murmansk *Nenets Tribe - Naryan-Mar *Samoyedic Tribe - Salyakharad *Mennonite Tribe - Pazhga *Hungarian Tribe - Trakt *Chuvash Tribe - Cheboksary In certain extenuating circumstances, each Board has a "transportation fund" (which is fuelled by taxes) that a member or members of a Tribe who is/are a large distance from their board's seat (an extreme example would be an Ob Ugric living in Enso, Uralica's westernmost major settlement, thousands of kilometres from Yugrakar) can have the Board pay their travel costs. As Uralica is a fairly affluent nation, instances of this are fairly scant, but they do happen. Checks and Balances *The Chief's stipend was set at K$200 000 per year. (The current one takes in a lot more per year, because of his career as a professional footballer, prize money from skiing, and money from being a successful force in the record industry, both solo and in his band Bane of the Machine) *The stipend of Tribal Council and Supreme Court members was set at K$55 000 per year, *The stipend of Tribal Board members was set at K$37 500 per year. *All of the above are prohibited from voting themselves pay raises by Uralica's constitution. The actual number will rise and fall with inflation and exchange rates as stated by the International Monetary Value Board, of which Uralica has been a quarterly member once. The Supreme Court and Uralican Law The Uralican justice system is presided over by the Supreme Court of Uralica. This is comprised by seventeen individuals - one representative voted on by each Tribal Board. The Chief chooses the Chief Justice from these based on history, competency, and knowledge of Uralica's laws. The purpose of the Supreme Court is to uphold the law of the land, whether this be the criminal law, the civil law, or the constitutional law. The last of these three can only be dealt with by the Supreme Court, however Supreme Court Justices will often find themselves taking on high-level criminal cases as well, given the rarity of crime in Uralica. High-profile and/or high-volume civil cases are also presided over by a Justice. Perhaps the best example of this is the fallout from the 2006 Kondopoga race riots, with the criminal case being presided over by the first and only Chief Justice the nation has had, Yuri Shvidki of the Russian Tribe, and the following civil case being presided over by Joonatan Leppänen of the Karelian Tribe. One of the aspects of Neo-Tribalism in Uralica is that overt bigotry (that is, violence or harassment of an individual based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, or sexual orientation) is grounds for extension of a criminal sentence or harsher reprisal in a civil case. Therefore if someone commits a violent crime in Uralica and is found guilty of doing so "with bigoted intent," judges tend to add extra time. In fact, it is possible to receive a life sentence with years added in the case of first-degree murder with bigoted intent (in Uralican legalese this is often called "Murder One WBI") which happened in the aforementioned criminal case regarding the Kondopoga riots, where five Chechens were sentenced to life plus ten years for their role in starting the riot through their actions. The death penalty was discussed in the early days of the Uralicist Movement, however Uralica has neither practiced, nor intended to practice it. If someone wanted to be implemented, it would have to be ratified by all seventeen Tribal Boards as well as the Tribal Council. First-Level Administrative Divisions At first, Neo-Tribalism did not account for the fact that divisions would eventually be necessary with regards to the population, as the capital city of Syktyvkar was too distant from western points like Vologda and Cherepovets (and later Viipuri, Petroskoi, Murmansk and other such cities) to make governance effective. Therefore, some aspects of daily life were partly delegated with the passing of the Counties Act in July of 2009. Each County has a board, in much the same way as each Tribe does, and in theory, they are on the same level. In practice, however, it depends very much on the subject matter. For example, health care and infrastructure are both departments better handled by the County Boards, and cultural events, sport, and musical education are both better-handled by the Tribal Boards. Each County Board meets in the county seat designate. However, some cities are so large that they act independent of any county board. The term "unitary authority" was borrowed from a system in Old England, but in Uralica and versions of Neo-Tribalism adapted to larger nations, the term is specifically used to refer to a city, or in some cases multiple cities within close proximity (Arkhangel'sk-Severodvinsk, Solikamsk-Berezniki, Ukhta-Sosnogorsk), where the County Board and Municipal Board are one and the same. In the case of multiple-city UAs, the largest city is the seat of this municipal government. Municipal Government, and Status Unlike the Russian system, which had several levels of settlement status ranging from selo (village) to gorod (city), there are only three levels of settlement in Uralica - village (Russ. derevnja, Finn. kylä), town (Russ. posjolok, Ur. Finn. kunnanlinna), and city (Russ. gorod', Finn. kaupunki). A city has several requirements of it according to the Uralican Cities Act: *Must have at least 20 000 people. *Must have at least four music schools per 20 000 people. *Must have at least one campus of the State College of Uralica. Joint campuses between two or more cities up to a maximum of five are allowed. *Must have a sufficient commercial district - subject to the inspection of a representative of the Uralican Infrastructural Standards Committee. *Must have sufficient road infrastructure - subject to the inspection of a representative of the Uralican Infrastructural Standards Committee. *School classes must not average over 27 children per classroom. *Must have their city charter approved by the Tribal Council. *Must have access to a numbered highway. *Must have an airport. For cities in unitary authorities only: *City charter must be compatible with the Bylaws and Acts that comprise the Unitary Authority's governing documents. *A city merger must not be possible: **for geographical reasons such as a river, lake, or other significant obstruction **for distance reasons The only requirements for a town are that the settlement requires 1500 people (which is actually down from the 2000 it was before February of 2010) and it requires the establishment of a Municipal Board. If a settlement is smaller and/or lacks a Municipal Board, it is considered a village. There are typically fifteen, seventeen, or nineteen members on a Municipal Board (the largest board is Yekaterinburg's at a whopping 39 because of the sheer size of the city and UA), which is made up of an elected Mayor and elected representatives. The role of the Municipal Board is to control base issues such as water, sewer/septic standards, home inspections, facility maintenance, and anything cultural done on a local scale. Category:Uralica Category:Political ideologies